Nightmares and Memories
by enlyasurgeon
Summary: Side story to Wishes. Goku wakes up in the middle of the night and finds Kaida alone and he convinces her to talk about her nightmares and memories. Takes place somewhere between Chapters 15-17 (not sure exactly where). Rated for violence and language.


Goku woke to a dark room; looking around he wondered what had woken him. Getting up he pulled on his pants and padded barefoot through the house. As he wondered through the halls he spotted a light coming from the small sitting room. Curious as to who could be up at this time of night he opened the door and entered the room. "Kaida? What are you doing up this late?" Kaida looked up from her book, "I'm always up at this hour. What about you Kakarot?" Goku walked over and sat beside her on the couch. "I'm not sure, I had a feeling that something was wrong." The two watched each other for a while until Goku broke the silence, "Nothing new really...I just can't sleep for very long."

"Nightmares?" Goku asked, sounding concerned. Kaida looked away and nodded her head. "Did you want to talk about it?" Kaida scoffed at him, "talk about what? I've had nightmares all my life. I don't think I've ever had a good night's sleep." Goku looked down at his feet. "Are they nightmares or memories?" She shrugged, "same thing really."

"What was your nightmare about tonight?" Goku asked, slowly moving his right arm up and across the back of the couch so that it lay behind Kaida. She looked at him and sighed putting down her book. "It was a few months after Raditz left us. We had just returned from another purge, Nappa went straight to the lower levels where the whores were kept while DehDeh and Geta went off to study. Normally I would have gone with Raditz to do my own studies, but with him gone...I didn't feel like joining Geta that day so I wandered around the halls instead."

"Was that really safe? You just wandering around the ship by yourself. I mean you had to be...three, four?"

"I may have been young, but I am a Saiyan. I was already stronger than most of Frieza's men, so none of them really bothered me." Kaida closed her eyes lost in thought. Goku saw the pain in her expression, "What happened that day?"

"Dodoria. I ran into him down one of the halls. While I did bow, like I was expected to but...he decided that I was now quick enough nor low enough so he was going to punish me for my lack of respect."

_**Flashback**_

Dodoria dragged the young Saiyan to his 'Special' room. As he flung her to the floor he noticed her slight wince of pain as her ankle hit the ground. "Ah yes that's right. You broke that ankle didn't you? Tsk tsk tsk. You know someone as small as you really should not be riding in a full sized pod by yourself." _No shit DodoBreath_ Kaida thought, _but the stupid lizard refuses to give us pods for our size...probably hoping we'll kill ourselves riding in the full sized ones._

Laughing at his own joke he grabbed her wrists and roughly put on ki cuffs attached together by a thick chain with a rope tied around the middle. Pulling the other end of the rope he hoisted her into the air until he was satisfied with how far off the ground she was dangling and tied off the other end. She could almost look the fat piece of bubble gum in the eye...not that she ever would. _ I wonder what his plans are this time,_ she sighed, _I hope he gets this over with soon I'm starting to get hungry._ She was thrust out of her thoughts by a sharp pain across her back. _Ah the whip...how very original...NOT._ Realizing that she was not feeling enough pain Dodoria lowered the whip and walked around her. "Do you not like this toy anymore" he nodded, "We have used this one a lot. I know what toy we should play with now." Grinning he walked across the room to grab a length of chain attached to a leather handle. Turning he showed his captive his choice. "I think you'll like this toy," he studied her for a moment, "wait we can't have you wrecking your pretty outfit now can we. Lord Frieza won't like that at all." Dodoria walked away from her and put the length of chain down on the side table. Slowly he returned, pulling her shirt up, exposing her body to the chilly air and completely covering her face. _I swear he keeps this room freezing just to mess with us_ she though. She heard Dodoria chuckling somewhere behind her, "Much better." Raising his arm Dodoria brought the length of chain down across her back. Kaida sucked in her breath in an attempt not to cry out. The chains pinched her skin along with peeling parts off but she was determined not to give him the satisfaction of hearing her cry out. Dodoria continued the whipping for what seemed like hours. Kaida was staring to panic, with her shirt over her head not only could she not see but it was becoming very difficult to breath.

Dodoria was mad. The little monkey wasn't playing along. No matter how many times he whipped her she wouldn't scream for him. Putting down the length of chain he listened to her panicking breathing and an idea came to him. "Tell me something monkey girl. Do you know what happens to warriors who are no longer able to fight? I'll tell you. Either they are killed or they become slaves and do you know what kind of slaves the younger good looking ones become..." he waited letting his words sink into her little monkey brain. "They become whores. Now what do you think would happen if I were to continually break that ankle of yours for say...the next ten years?" he smiled at her sharp intake of breath. "Exactly. Eventually you will be unable to fight and when that day comes I'll ask Frieza for you. You can be my own 'personal' slave." Dodoria grasped her already broken ankle and twisted it to one side until he heard bones crack. Kaida couldn't help but scream at the pain that went shooting up her leg. Laughing Dodoria unchained her wrists letting her fall blindly to the ground. Unprepared for the fall and still without complete control of her ki, Kaida landed on her feet at a bad angle causing further pain to her abused foot. "Get up," Dodoria kicked her in the ribs, "put yourself back together and get out of my sight." Slowly Kaida rose, pulled her shirt back down and headed for the door.

_**End Flashback**_

"What happened then?" Goku asked. Unconsciously Kaida leaned towards Goku, painting. "That's where I always wake up but...I somehow managed to make it back to our rooms, but no one was there. I remember trying to get to my bed and lay down but I had to stop half way there, I must have blacked out because I don't know what happened. The next thing I knew I was in DehDeh's bed with cold packs on my back, a bandage on my face and someone poking my ankle." She laughed quietly at the memory, "If I hadn't recognized his sent I would have blasted DehDeh. It was the pain of him trying to reset my ankle that woke me. I remember how sad he looked while he was trying to fix my ankle." They sat in silence for a while, neither one uncomfortable with the silence.

Kaida shifted where she sat. _I don't know why but something about him makes me want to tell him more._ Goku felt her confusion and let his instincts take over, placing his hand on her shoulder he found himself purring for the first time since Gohan was very little. It seemed to work; at least she had relaxed a little and was leaning in even closer. "It's never properly healed...still hurts sometimes. We had just returned from another purge when Raditz landed. Geta and I didn't have scouters so we had to rely on DehDeh and Nappa to tell us what was happening. I remember they were telling us about the fight, it sounded like a good one...then they just stopped and listened to what was going on on the other end. It took a while but eventually DehDeh told us that Raditz was dead and that he had died an honorable death." Goku pulled her closer, running his tail down the side of her face, purring to encourage her to continue talking which she did.

"After DehDeh put us to bed he and Nappa talked a lot about going to Earth and getting the Dragon Balls so they could wish for immorality. I remember the looks that he kept giving us...I don't know why but it felt off somehow. The next day we didn't do any training. Nappa disappeared, not that weird really, but DehDeh...he spent the entire day with us doing anything we wanted. He never did that really...at least not for long. He even let us sleep with him that night, normally that was only allowed after a really bad purge or extra long sessions with Frieza. I never slept well even then so I was used to waking up in the middle of the night and having to say still in bed while the others slept. Part of my face was wet...it was the sting that woke me...something had gotten my stitches wet." Goku watched as she rubbed a line on the right side of her face from her eye down to her jaw and back, _she must have a bad scar there, I wonder how she got it. Wait, if she was sleeping with Vegeta and Geta and something got her face wet...he must have been crying!_ "In the morning...when we were supposed to wake up...DehDeh held us both and said that he and Nappa had to leave us, they didn't want to but they had to." He could feel her shaking so he pulled her into a hug, pressing her to his chest, wrapping his tail around her waist and purring. "Geta and I stood on the launch pad watching them leave. It was hard to survive by ourselves there...mind you it was a bit easier after Frieza left for Namek..." She allowed him to hold her, somehow it felt good...it felt right. Even though they went through it all together Kaida had never talked about it with Geta and he had never wanted to talk about it either.

Goku held her, he didn't think she was crying...no she was too Saiyan to cry...but it was probably the closest thing to crying that she had done. _I knew Vegeta wanted the Dragon Balls to wish for immorality and to use that immorality to defeat Frieza but I never would have thought...he did it for them! For Geta and Kaida, so they wouldn't have to grow up under Frieza's rule...so they could be free. Well now I feel like a dick for fighting him on earth. The man raises my daughter and risks his life to protect her and I stand between him and his goal to make her life better, to free her and his son from that monster. FUCK!_

They sat there quietly for a while, Goku holding her close letting her calm herself while he was lost thinking about what she hadn't said. Eventually she pulled away. "Kaka...Fath...umm..." Kaida blushed at her own confusion over what to call this man, now that he had seen her at her weakest. Goku chuckled to himself at her confusion; he could tell that he making some kind of connection with her. Using his finger he gently raised her chin so that she was looking him in the eye, "You can call me whatever you feel works for you be it Kakarot, Father...or even Dad." She looked even more confused at the term and he couldn't help himself; he laughed. "Dad is...well it's another word for Father only...less formal. I'm not very good at explaining things." He rubbed the back of his head in his usual manner. Kaida nodded in understand, "Gohan and Goten call you that and prince Trunks uses it for DehDeh." Goku nodded, "Ya...it's more of an affectionate term." Once again they sat together in silence. Eventually Kaida got up, "I'm late for training with Geta." Goku also stood, "You two always train in the morning?" She shrugged, "depends really. I always train in the mornings...not like I'm sleeping anyways." They both laughed at her comment. Together they left the sitting room and went their own ways, Goku back up to his room and Kaida off to the training room.

Every morning afterwards Goku would head down to the sitting room and sit with Kaida in the early morning hours. Some morning she would tell him about her nightmares/memories and other experiences. Other mornings he would do all the talking; telling her about his life on earth and his battles. Sill other mornings they would sit in silence. One these mornings Goku would put his arm around her shoulders and let her lean into him.

One morning after sitting in silence for over an hour, Goku heard Kaida sigh and was surprised when she put her head on his shoulder and wrapping an arm around his waist. Goku smiled as he wrapped his arm around her shoulders and his tail rested against her leg. He was once again surprised when he felt something furry wrap around his other wrist. Looking over he saw that she had wrapped her tail around his wrist. _Raditz said something about that...oh ya. He said that it's a sign of trust between two Saiyans. I don't really remember exactly what he said but it was something about it being used in parent/child bonds and between mates._ Eventually after a few hours Kaida got up and walked towards the door. She paused in the doorway, her hand on the frame. She turned her head to look back at Kakarot, "Thanks...Dad." She turned back and ran down the hall towards the training room.


End file.
